Creation Of Czechoslovakia Research Articles

Zakonšpirované Slovensko 1938 – 1945. Niekoľko úvah nad tvárami neviditeľného spiritus movens ľudáckeho režimu

The paradigm of Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party (HSĽS) regime, as well as the persecutory measures implemented against fabricated “enemies of the nation” during its reign (October 1938 – April 1945), were based on conspiracy theories. This essay identifies the main ones, pointing out their genesis, intentionality, and ways of operating with them in political practice. The analysis shows that although many conspiracy frames used in wartime Slovakia correlated with narratives in other countries of the fascist Axis, they cannot be considered copypastes of rhetoric popularized mostly by Nazi Germany. The text promotes the idea that the conspiratorial thinking of the HSĽS already formed in the late Habsburg monarchy at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the changes in international politics in the 1930s only had an effect on their firmer establishment in the political culture of the party and political preferences of its supporters. The basis of this conspiratorial thinking was the fear of liberalism, of the threat to the Christian faith and the Slovak nation by a group of highly sophisticated interconnected “pests” with destructive intentions. Until 1918, it primarily included the Marxist left, capitalists, freemasons, and liberals in general, and after the creation of Czechoslovakia, Czechs, and Jews to an increased extent. The essay emphasizes that precisely the argumentation of conspiracy theories (“imperialism of Prague against Slovakia/Slovaks”, “Jewish Bolshevism”) provided the legitimizing platform for the repressive policy of the HSĽS regime and authorized violence against entire groups of the population that did not belong to the “ingroup”.

Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between Czechoslovakia and the Holy See After the Creation of Czechoslovakia in the Fall of 1918

The present study deals with the establishment and development of diplomatic relations between Czechoslovakia and the Holy See immediately after the creation of Czechoslovakia in the fall of 1918 which underwent a dramatic and turbulent change. The most acute questions to discuss included the filling of Czech and Slovak bishopric thrones, the Church administration in Slovakia and the matters of Church education while the filling of the bishopric thrones in the Czech lands and Slovakia proved to be of crucial importance for the proper functioning of the Church administration in Czechoslovakia. The study is based on source material, mainly of diplomatic nature, from the Archive of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague and the Vatican archives, the study reconstructs the character, form and transformation of diplomatic relations between the young Republic and the headquarters of the Catholic Church in Rome at the turn of the 1910s and 1920s. Extensive archival funds have been confronted with numerous literature sources, including contemporary history texts.

Paradoxes of the Czechoslovak Sokol Association in the Interwar Period

Abstract The article addresses some of the paradoxes of the interwar Czechoslovak Sokol Association. It shows how after 1918 Sokol historiography experienced a boom following national independence: a proliferation of accounts of the Sokol movement’s history to date told in largest part by the leadership of the association itself. These accounts re-narrated the history of the movement so that it became well-adjusted to the new culture of victory of the interwar state, positing throughout a separation between nation and empire and a struggle in which the former, aided by Sokol mobilization, was sure to emerge victorious. The article asks that we read this historiography ‘against the grain’, showing that the actual relationship of Sokol to late-Habsburg civil society was protean and shifting, and only re-cast as unswervingly adversarial in the post-1918 period. The second part of the article looks at the participation of Sokol members and leadership in the war in Slovakia (1919), presented in interwar historiography and commemoration as a culminating moment in Sokol’s participation in the national liberation of Czechs and Slovaks. In fact, there is a compelling case to be made that Sokol’s role in fighting and violence at this time also shows the ongoing contestation and conflict associated with the creation of Czechoslovakia. The article shows that re-narrating the history of the Habsburg period and the war itself to emphasize the voluntarist contribution of groups such as Sokol was an important part of establishing and maintaining the legitimacy of the interwar state.

Methodological solutions of oral history and their application in research into Czech evangelical communities in Eastern and South-eastern Europe

This work deals with the Czech evangelical (reformed religion) communities in Eastern and Southeastern Europe which originated in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th for economic and social reasons. The founders of these communities either left the territory of Bohemia and Moravia for the fringes of the Habsburg monarchy (they started to appear abroad only after the creation of Czechoslovakia), or they left the post-White Mountain exiles’ settlements in today’s Poland and set up new villages by the process of what is termed secondary migration. These communities continue to function up to today and the Czech language is still a commonly used form of communication. The aim of this work is to capture the narration of the last members of these communities about the history of particular communities and the common motifs of their narrations across the communities. The factors which help to preserve the identities of these communities are also identified. The method of oral history and the biographical method are the main approaches employed in the research, and the final narrations are analysed and compared. Subsequently, the concepts of the collective memory are taken into consideration.

Signs of Disintegration: Subversive Visual Expressions of Processes of Social Transformation and Ideological Clashes in a Czech Graphic Novel Series about Political History

The article deals with comics' (re)presentation of conceptual – political and ideological – content and how the semiotic potentials of non-representational ideas associated with social upheaval and political crises are expressed. After considering comics' potential to express abstract (non-depictive) concepts, we examine three Czech graphic novels, which concern crucial moments in Czech political history: the Austrian- Hungarian Empire's collapse and the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918; the disintegration of Czechoslovakia after the Nazi occupation in 1938; and the reformists' defeat by the invading Warsaw pact armies in the Prague Spring of 1968. In each case, we investigate the semiotic resources chosen by the individual artists to present these events. Finally, we describe how the selected historiographical graphic novels reflect the ideology of a transforming nation and express a sense of non-self-evidentness for the nation as an independent state.

The Fellow Who Made Himself President of a European Republic: Gregory Ignatius Zhatkovych

AbstractThis is the first comprehensive biography based on unique archival sources about Gregory Ignatius Zhatkovych, a Pittsburgh-based lawyer, who in 1918–1919 was instrumental in the creation of Czechoslovakia and the inclusion of its far eastern region, Subcarpathian Rus'/Ruthenia, into the new country.

"People, Your Government Has Returned to You!" The Czech Constitution of 1992 as Return to Constitutional Tradition

Unlike many of its Eastern European neighbors, the Czech Republic originates from a healthy constitutional tradition. Upon the creation of Czechoslovakia and through the modern day, the Czech Republic has had four constitutions, with major amendments to the documents of the Communist era. Three constitutions, from 1920, 1948, and 1960, served as guidelines for the creation of the 1992 constitution. Because the Czech Republic had not foreseen the Velvet Divorce from Slovakia, government officials found themselves in a rush to create a constitution for the new Czech state. The new document responded to the many injustices of the Communist era and adopted most of the precedents set in the 1920 constitution. The Czech Republic’s democratic and constitutional past sets it apart from other Eastern European countries, especially in terms of contemporary political and economic liberty.

The Battle of Zborov and the Politics of Commemoration in Czechoslovakia

The Battle of Zborov was the main commemorative site of Czechoslovakia's heroic military cult during the interwar era. The shifting fortunes of its commemoration reveal political attempts to reframe national questions for ideological ends. Zborov was an important symbol, because it was the nexus of the military and diplomatic-political efforts to found the state. The festivities on 2 July provided members of the military with the opportunity to demonstrate their prowess in the name of Zborov and to reassert their role in the creation of Czechoslovakia. The communist coup d'état in February 1948 spelled the end of the Czechoslovak national-military tradition that included Zborov. After 1989, the Battle of Zborov, like other historic events that had been downplayed or ignored under communism, enjoyed renewed interest. The “spirit of Zborov” has not been, however, an important part of a “usable past” in the post-communist Czech Republic or Slovakia, perhaps because it was so intimately associated with the formation of the First Czechoslovak Republic.

Slovakia

Until 1993, when the second Slovak Republic came into existence, Slovaks faced not just a question of survival but also one of identity. It was not that they did not know who they were, or that they did not understand their history, but rather that the rest of the world knew precious little about them.(f.1) They had inhabited states that challenged their existence as a nation. When the century began, they lived in Hungary, their land was called Felvidek (Upper Hungary), and their population was subjected to an assimilation process known as Magyarization. Less than two decades later, in 1918, as a result of the Great War and the breakup of Austria-Hungary, they became part of a new state called Czecho-Slovakia. The spelling with the hyphen is important because it recognized their national existence. However, within two years the hyphen had disappeared,(f.2) and most citizens of the country were identified as Czechs. (Czechoslovaks was also used but far less often than the abbreviated form.) For many Slovaks, this was a subtle way of denying their nationhood. Thus, for the better part of the 20th century, they felt that they were still engaged in a struggle for survival and national identity.The situation of the Slovaks today is very different from what it was when the century began: they no longer share a state and a name with another nation; they have full self-government; the Slovak flag flies at United Nations headquarters in New York and elsewhere around the world; and the Slovak national anthem resounds when the country's athletes win international sports events. Independence, it would appear, solved the problems of the past. But the challenges of post-communism also left the country with a confused sense of direction both in domestic politics and in foreign policy. A change of government in September 1998 indicates that this situation may finally be in the process of being resolved.The historical legacyTheir history makes it very clear that the Slovaks have always belonged to Western European civilization, contributed to its development, and have taken part in the various intellectual and artistic movements that define its culture. Until the Second World War, they did not belong to that half of Europe defined as eastern Europe,(f.3) although they were always in contact with it. Inclusion in the Soviet bloc in 1948 was imposed upon them; they did not choose it. Since the fall of communism, they have again sought identity with Europe, and T-shirts sold today in Bratislava describe Slovakia as 'the centre of Europe.' From a cultural and economic point of view, one can also say that Slovaks live at the crossroads of central Europe.(f.4)Its geographic location and the size of its population(f.5) explain why, until recently, Slovakia needed allies in its search for political solutions that would give it self-government and ensure its development. Although surrounded by many neighbours -- Poles to the north, Ukrainians and Russians to the east, Hungarians and Austrians to the south, and Czechs to the west -- Slovaks had only two options: to find a protector or to link up with another nation in a common state. The first option was proposed in the nineteenth century when it seemed that there was no other way to extricate the nation from Budapest's policy of Magyarization. Ludovit Stur,(f.6) a Slovak political leader during the revolutionary years of 1848-9, advocated panslavism and Russian intervention after it became clear that Slovak objectives could not be achieved in Hungary, at that time part of the Habsburg Empire. Until 1918, many Slovak political leaders in the central Slovak town of Turciansky Svaty Martin (Martin today) advocated a pro-Russian policy. However, what was never a viable option (Russian interest in the Slovaks was virtually non-existent) disappeared from Slovak politics with the creation of Czecho-Slovakia. It reappeared briefly during the Second World War when Slovak communists proposed that Slovakia be incorporated in the Soviet Union as a Soviet Socialist Republic. …

Чловек, што остал президентом європской республикы

AbstractThe Fellow Who Made Himself President of a European Republic. Gregory Ignatius Zhatkovych The study is the first comprehensive biography of Gregory Ignatius Zhatkovych, a Pittsburgh-based lawyer, who in 1918-1919 was instrumental in the creation of Czechoslovakia and the inclusion of its far eastern region, Subcarpathian Rus’/ Ruthenia, into the new country. Until now, information about Gregory Zhatkovych has come primarily from the extensive body of historical literature describing how Subcarpathian Rus’ was incorporated into Czechoslovakia at the close of World War I. The facts related in this literature are more or less the same. Their assessment, however, differs rather substantially depending on the ideological orientation of the authors and / or the time when they were writing. In the above literature Gregory Zhatkovych figures prominently, although until most recently he has been described in very different terms. For some authors, he is hailed as a friend of the young democratic Czechoslovak state. For others, especially those of Marxist persuasion, he is denigrated as a representative of Rusyn-American “bourgeois nationalist organizations”, a “lackey” and “loyal son of American capitalism”, and “an agent of American imperialism”. Finally, there are those who consider Zhatkovych a Carpatho-Rusyn patriot who did his best – but ultimately failed – to as sure that the promises made by the Czechoslovak government for Subcarpathian self-rule would be fulfilled. Despite his historic importance, to date there is no biography of Gregory Zhatkovych other than a few brief encyclopedic entries. Aside from their brevity, these entries generally focus on the few years just after World War I, when he was politically active in Europe. But Zhatkovych had a life both before and after those years as a lawyer and political activist in the United States, in particular in western Pennsylvania. Based on recently uncovered correspondence between Zhatkovych and his wife and between the wife and her sister, as well as unpublished biographical data provided by his surviving family members, the recently published correspondence with President Masaryk, and several rare newspaper reports especially from western Pennsylvania, this is the first study to provide a comprehensive biography that spans Gregory Zhatkovych’s pre- and especially post-World War I career in the United States until his death in 1967.